Killerton parkrun news

Killerton parkrun Event number 368 2nd June 2018

Apologies from me for not posting this sooner. I was off damaging myself again on a school trip to France. And many thanks to Theresa Butchers for this very wise and informative run report; reiterating the importance of finishing procedures.

ED Joe

How does the team get our results out? I expect you know all this, but if not, here goes:

When the Run Director blows the whistle to see us all off, the Timekeeper, standing nearby, starts their stopwatch at the precise moment of departure.

While we all run round, the timekeeper goes down to the finish in time for the first runner home. From then on, it’s high concentration: one click of the watch at the exact moment each runner goes through the entrance to the finishing funnel.

So by the time the tail runner comes in, the stopwatch knows that, say, the first runner home took 18 mins, the 150th runner took 28 mins, the 250th runner 40 mins, and so on.

What the system doesn’t know yet is who those runners are.

But at the end of the funnel the Finish Tokens volunteer gives each of us a finish token, with its barcode and number – number 0001 for the first runner home, 0150 for the 150th, and so on.

We take our personal ID barcode and finish token to the scanners, who scan first our ID barcode, and then our finish number.

When we’ve all gone home, the Results Processor volunteer loads the times and numbers from the timekeeper’s stopwatch, and the ID barcodes and finish token numbers from the scanners, and a piece of parkrun software marries these, so that we now know

- how long the 1st, 150th, 250th runner, and all of us, took to pass the finish line

- who the 1st, 150th, 250th and so forth runners are.

Ingenious, and I guess simple hardware and software.

That’s why it’s so important to stay in line in the funnel and collect your finish token if you’ve passed the timekeeper at the entrance, as otherwise the system will think someone else took the time you took, and the stopwatch will have more runners on than the number of finish tokens given out.

It’s also why it’s important to return your finish token to the scanners, as if tokens are missing, the placings (and therefore the ID of the runners) get out of line.

And if you’ve run your socks off to get round, the team wants you to have spot-on timing and placing as part of your brilliant all-round parkrun experience.

Two things: if you forget your ID barcode but want to know your time, go through the funnel, take your finish token, remember the orange four digit number printed on it, and have it scanned. The results will say ‘unknown’ and your personal profile won’t be updated, but you’ll be able to see from the number what time you took, and where you came.

And, if you don’t want to feature on the placings at all (or if you’ve been through and gone back to accompany someone else) veer off just before the beginning of the funnel, where the two hi-vis notices say ‘runners only past this point’.

Enjoy!

This week 327 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 30 were first timers and 43 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 27 different clubs took part.

The female record is held by Lucy HASELL who recorded a time of 17:44 on 31st March 2012 (event number 49).
The male record is held by Tom MERSON who recorded a time of 15:23 on 6th July 2013 (event number 114).
The Age Grade course record is held by Catherine Ann Thurlow NEWMAN who recorded 92.07% (18:55) on 18th July 2015 (event number 218).

Killerton parkrun started on 30th April 2011. Since then 10,822 participants have completed 78,600 parkruns covering a total distance of 393,000 km, including 13,861 new Personal Bests.